Bottle from Chris Whittle. Copper pour with a thick bubbly head. Aroma is vanilla, sweet maple and molasses. Taste is mild sweetness with a slight bourbon and oak finish. Medium carbonation. Good old ale.

Bottle: Poured a hazy light dirty brown color ale with a medium size foamy head with average retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of sweet sugary notes with some vanilla and bourbon notes clearly identifiable. Taste is a mix of heavy caramelized malt notes with quite a dose of residual sugars and molasses with some vanilla and bourbon also noticeable. Body is quite full with medium carbonation with some wearing alcohol easily identifiable. Interesting experience for sure but maybe a bit too sweet for my taste.

Pours deep almost ruby amber with a smaller beige head. Aroma is doughy with some liqueur like sweet malts and the sweet treatments bring sweet smooth booze. The flavor is the same, liqueur like cognac smooth sweet notes not too resiny or sweet. The maple syrup has unfortunately died at this point.

Transfer from BA review on 5-8-14-
Poured from bottle into a snifter
Appearance – The beer pours a crystal clear deep amber color with a one finger head of off white foam. The head fades rather fast leaving a great level of foamy lace on the sides of the glass. The thick body of the brew is foreshadowed by swirling the brew in the glass, as one can see thick fingers of liquid clinging to the sides with them very slowly settling back to the bottom of the snifter.
Smell – A big caramel aroma is present in the nose with other sweet smells of vanilla and toffee. Some maple syrup and darker fruits aromas are present as well, upping the sweetness of the brews aroma. Along with the big sugary sweet smells comes along plenty of “hot” boozy smells with a strong bourbon and woody smell.
Taste – The taste begins just as the nose would have suggested; with a big sweet caramel flavor. Right from start there is also a maple syrup flavor as well as some bready tastes. Some darker fruit flavors of raisin and plum with some other roasted malt taste also quickly come to the tongue with the mix of flavors largely acting as a base for the brew. As the flavor advances from the initial, it gains a bit of butterinesss with the caramel transitioning to a toffee flavor to some extent. Boozy flavors of a rum like nature start coming to the tongue more toward the middle of the taste, starting out lighter, but by the end of the taste growing rather strong. Other flavors of a more woody and oaky nature really pick it up toward the end of the taste, and with a surge of the maple syrup and a light bourbon flavor joining the rum, one is left with a very warming and rather sweet flavor to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is thicker and sticky with a carbonation level that is on the lower side. Both are very nice for the sugary sweet (caramel, toffee, maple syrup) and boozy flavor of the brew and make for a very nice slow sipper.
Overall – A robustly sweet and very tasty beer indeed. Tons of sugary tastes with a moderate dose of booze present as well, but yet still managing to maintain a decent balance for the style.

"Bottled as Curmudgeons Better Half. Great Label. Beer 3k! Looks deep chestnut, similar to the base brew. Great head for a bareled brew. Wonderful aroma of diverse malts, maple, bourbon, (vanilla and oak). Feel is smooth as expected (I’m a big fan of KBS and Backwoods Bastard which seem to use the same bourbon barrels). The flavor is just fantastic. The old ale, bourbon, and maple syrup, which I thought may be oversweet, blend together perfectly. Soooo stinkin delicious. The only "flaw" of this beer, and I’m really nitpicking here, is the 11.9% shows a little. Not too much, but a little less bozze and this is a 4.7 or higher. Glad I picked this beer for the "milestone". "

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